Hello…so I subscribe to PLoS blogs and interestingly your blog popped up about why you’ve been incognito so I clicked over to your PhD Nomad blog and have thence subscribed. Kudos for your decision to travel following your PhD. I can sympathize? haha, with your situation–2 bachelors degrees, 2 certificates, and 7 years for my PhD and I went directly into a PostDoc. I dreamed of ‘letting it all go’ and becoming one of the over-educated ‘umemployed’–travel etc…unfortunately my situation was a bit different coming out of my degree process. I was just fortunate, though, to find a postdoc in Thailand. I’m based in Bangkok (I’m a microbiologist) and will be finishing up my place here in the next several months. If you and Marina come through Bangkok, I’d love to take you out and swap stories of academia and adventure abroad. If not, then happy travels!

Hi Mel! Thanks for stopping by. Although it sounds like we’ve taken slightly divergent routes since our PhDs, we both ended up in SE Asia:) Glad to hear things are going well for you and that you were able to stay inside academia and experience a new culture. Near the end of our PhDs, I don’t think even that (postdoc in exotic location) would have convinced us to stay. Just out of curiosity, what is your next step after the post-doc? Sadly, while we certainly thank you for the offer and would have loved to have met you in Bangkok as we were there in Sept and Dec of 2011, we are now in Auckland, and will be here for a few months with no immediate plans to head back to Thailand. We certainly miss SE Asia, and Thailand, in particular. The cost of living there is simply unbeatable – something we were rudely reminded of when we landed in New Zealand! Feel free to continue the conversation by using the “Contact us” form on the site. All the best on the next step!

Going to an excellent destination such as this for the honeymoon vacation is
usually a genuine adventure and is definitely some thing
that has to become considered seriously. Sure, you will find so many choices,
but ultimately everything comes down to what
you agree on both. My getaway to the Bahamas was so great that we
are thinking of doing it again for the second honeymoon!

Just wondering what time of year and date those pictures were shot, etc when you went to Koh PhiPhi etc as I have been lead to believe “The Beach” beach is not as private and secluded as it used to be and is actually over-run by tourists and local sellers etc and quite more expensive as it is, dare I say, ruined by over tourism…?

These pictures were taken in November and yes, there are plenty of tourists that swarm these beautiful areas. The key is to join a tour that attempts to work around the schedule of the most popular tours. This is what we did and we had many of the stops that day largely to ourselves for at least 30-60 mins before the hoards of tourists would show up. Alternatively, you could actually stay on Koh Phi Phi for the night, which would give you access to the beautiful sights before and after the tourist boats drop by on day tours. Sadly, much as the rest of the tourist circuit, it is getting harder and harder to have some serenity and be able to take a decent photo of a popular destination.